We had the opportunity to see many great and historical sites in the beautiful country of Ireland. Out of all of the places, my favorite would have to be the city of Howth, not just for the scenery but for the adventure. Howth is a bus ride and a 30 minute train ride from Dublin where we were staying. It was a last minute decision to go so the planning of transportation was not up to par.
It was like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles just trying to get to Howth. The closest bus stop was just right outside of our living space so that wasn’t difficult to figure out. What was troublesome was finding the stop that will get you closer to the train station. There’s nothing more stressful but equally as fun as traveling in a city you know nothing about. As we sat on the second floor of the bus patiently waiting for our stop, the stop is called on the speaker and we rush like a herd of cattle to the front door. Apparently our yelling “go go go!” and the thunderous stomps off our feet weren’t understood by the bus driver because he closed the doors before we could even see them.
With a new obstacle thrown our way, we had to backtrack and walk to the station. Once we found the station, the next step would be to finding the correct train and buying a two way ticket. We must have looked pretty
helpless because a woman came over to us and asked if we would like some assistance and that was much appreciated. With tickets in hand, we began to look for the train. We believed it to be on terminal three, but we’re foreign to this country so we’re paranoid anyways. For some reason we thought it was in terminal seven which is nowhere near terminal three so we started to run. It felt like we were in a moving weaving in and out of slow walkers trying to rush to our train. With our luck there’s no train so we have to run back to terminal three to catch the first train. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once we sat down on the right train because we knew the hard part was over.
As we approached Howth, a rainbow stretched from the sky and landed just behind a lighthouse. An Irish sign of good luck if anything, which we indeed needed. The train doors opened and music spewed in from the town. We found a beautiful stone wall in the harbor where we could sit and stare out into the vast ocean. On one end of the harbor was where all of the sailboats were tied down and then as you follow the harbor out to sea, there was a li
ghthouse that gives a warm welcome to anyone coming to Howth. We fed the seagulls some pretzels until they started to get violent so we had to relocate before they carried us away. My favorite part of Howth was the beach. Matt and I took off our shoes and socks so we could wade into the freezing ocean water. We waded in the water as far as we could to where our rolled up jeans would get wet. As the sun started to go down, clouds began to gather and it looked like it was about to storm so we made our way back to the train.